Arizona State University announced today that for a seventh consecutive year it has been designated as a Military Friendly School by G.I. Jobs magazine.

The designation provides service members and their families with transparent, data-driven ratings about post-military education and career opportunities. G.I. Jobs magazine named Arizona State University a Military Friendly school for a seventh consecutive year. Download Full Image

The Military Friendly accolade is awarded to the top colleges, universities, community colleges and trade schools in the country that are doing the most to embrace military students and to dedicate resources ensuring their success both in the classroom and after graduation.

“The timing of this recognition is perfect as we are in the middle of our annual Salute to Service celebration,” said Steve Borden, director of ASU’s Pat Tillman Veterans Center. “Being named a ‘Military Friendly School’ for a seventh time recognizes our consistent advancement of services and support for veterans.”

Borden said that Salute to Service is one of the major initiatives that underscores ASU’s inclusion of veterans, service members and their families, and helps the university earn this type of recognition.

“Post-secondary institutions earning the 2016 Military Friendly School award have exceptionally strong programs for transitioning service members and spouses,” said Daniel Nichols, Navy Reserve veteran and chief product officer for Victory Media, the parent company of G.I. Jobs magazine. “Our Military Friendly schools are truly aligning their military programs and services with employers to help students translate military experience, skills and training into successful careers after graduation.”

Enrollment of veterans and those still serving hit record highs for the current fall semester, said Borden. ASU has just over 4,150 student veterans, and of those nearly 500 are still serving on active duty, the Guard or reserves. Nearly 1,000 military family members are also enrolled.

“We also have increased our military online students by 40 percent in the past year,” said Borden.

Service members transitioning back to civilian life and looking to pursue their college goals are paying attention to which schools best meet their needs, and ASU is a military frontrunner, Borden said.

“We are interested in having veterans come here because we believe we’re offering what veterans are looking for,” he said. “Then we’re going to turn around and establish an environment where they can thrive.”

The Military Friendly designation validates ASU’s commitment to veterans, Borden said.

In addition to the title, ASU also made it onto two of G.I. Jobs magazine lists of the top 50 schools in the tech, telecom and diversified services industry for veterans.

“What does that mean?” said Ann Lee Ayers, regional consultant with Victory Media. “It means you have some great majors in business administration, information technology, operations and logistics, human resources, accounting, information management, science, cyber security and communications.”

Institutions competed for the Military Friendly School title by completing a survey of more than 100 questions covering 10 categories, including military support on campus, graduation and employment outcomes, and military spouse policies. Survey responses were scored against benchmarks across these key indicators of success. In addition, data was independently tested by professional services firm Ernst & Young based on weightings and methodology established by Victory Media with guidance from an independent advisory board of higher education and recruiting professionals.

Arizona State University's School of Politics and Global Studies and the American Indian Studies Program have announced the new American Indian Nation Governance Certificate, which is designed to prepare students to develop greater understanding of government and governance in Native American communities.

The curriculum covers several themes that range from the historical experiences, policies and the sovereign status of American Indians to the legal and political relationships between Native American Nations and the U.S., state and local governments. Students will be better prepared to work with or within American Indian nations, federal and state agencies and non-profits regardless of their academic major or place of employment. Download Full Image

“Arizona is Indian country with 22 tribal nations, each with its own tribal government,” said John Tippeconnic, director of the American Indian Studies Program. “There are 566 tribal governments nationwide. The American Indian Governance Certificate gives students an opportunity to become familiar with important tribal governance concepts like tribal sovereignty, self-determination, government-to-government relationship, and contemporary Indian issues. The result will be Individuals who will be better equipped to work the tribal nations.”

The requirements include coursework in American Indian Studies and Political Science, including optional applied internships. Students may be awarded the certificate upon the completion of 15 specific credits. To learn more about the program requirements click here.

Arizona’s Hispanic population has nearly tripled since 1990 and accrued an estimated spending power of about $40.3 billion this year alone, but the state’s economy will not advance if education does not improve for this growing group, Arizona State University’s president told the annual DATOS conference Wednesday.

Michael M. Crow delivered the keynote address at the Arizona Biltmore in Phoenix to more than 1,000 Latino business and community leaders attending the Arizona Hispanic Chamber of Commerce’s 19th Annual “DATOS: The State of Arizona’s Hispanic Market.” President Michael M. Crow addresses more than 1,000 people at the Arizona Hispanic Chamber of Commerce’s 19th annual “DATOS: The State of Arizona’s Hispanic Market,” held Sept. 23 at the Arizona Biltmore. The president spoke of the increasing need for Arizona Latino students to continue their education to improve both their and the state’s economy. Photo by: Charlie Leight/ASU News Download Full Image

He hailed Hispanic Americans for having the highest aspiration of achieving the “American dream” among all ethnic groups. But nationally only 15 percent have graduated from college — considered a crucial determinant of upward mobility — and their incomes remain significantly below average. 

“The one thing we need to focus our energy on is the educational attainment of all people, and in particular people of Latino descent,” Crow said. “Our economic success will depend on the realization of the American dream for all ethnic groups. If you have that aspiration energizing large parts of your population, there’s nothing you cannot achieve.”

Addressing the Hispanic education gap is not just about social justice, democracy or equal opportunity, but about Arizona’s “economic imperative,” he said. Compared with other states, Arizona is lagging and trending downward, now below the 80th percentile, in per capita gross domestic product relative to the U.S. average, while other states such as Texas, Colorado and Utah are climbing.  

“We used to be historically at the national average or above it,” Crow said about Arizona’s GDP and low postsecondary-education enrollment rate, fifth lowest in the nation. “This is a function of one thing, educational attainment.”

A report by the Georgetown University Center on Education and the Workforce estimates that by 2020, 68 percent of all Arizona jobs will require postsecondary education. That estimate contemplates a 100 percent graduation rate from high school followed by more education and training, said Crow.

“University degrees, community college degrees, technical degrees, completion of high school, mean only one thing,” Crow said. “You’re better prepared for adaptation with them, than without them.”

Crow said more jobs are available to those with education because they have a higher ability to adapt more quickly, think flexibly, learn more quickly and move their lives forward.  

“This new kind of world and economy is not where only a few people go to college or a handful of people are selected for some unique kind of training … and everyone else is just left being paid minimum wage and doing repetitive tasks,” Crow said. “The new economy requires a new kind of university.”

The ASU model, known as the New American University, is about enhancing local impact in the community, Crow said. It’s about becoming a global center for knowledge and discovery. But it’s ultimately about the students.

“Our goal is to produce a master learner from any family, from any background, from any income level, who can be a critical thinker,” said Crow, while emphasizing that nearly 40 percent of ASU students are the first in their families to attend college. “Our goal is to be accessible and fantastically successful academically.”    

The DATOS conference report, presented during the event, has become a “comprehensive and reliable source of fact-based information about the state’s Hispanic market,” according to the Arizona Hispanic Chamber of Commerce. The report is meant to serve not just Arizona Hispanics but all public and private contributors to the state’s economic agenda. 

Loui Olivas, ASU professor emeritus of business management, presented the report to the audience and provided some eye-opening facts about the impact of the nation’s Hispanic purchasing power — estimated to reach $1.5 trillion this year. 

“$1.5 trillion is comparable to the GDP of Australia,” Olivas said. “The GDP is the total of all goods and services produced in a country in one year, and the Hispanic purchasing power in the U.S. has already surpassed Australia.”

This year’s report also revealed that from 2007 to 2012 the number of Hispanic-owned businesses grew 70 percent to 89,763, and census data presented by AZHCC revealed that nearly half of these firms — 41,843 — are owned by Hispanic women. 

“We know that Latinas are succeeding here, we know that they’re making a difference,” said Monica Villalobos, AZHCC vice president. “Despite political differences, despite economic differences and despite cultural differences, they’re thriving in Arizona and that’s a story we need to tell the rest of the country.”

Marking the start of Hispanic Heritage Month, the White House Initiative on Educational Excellence in Hispanics recognized Arizona State University’s American Dream Academy on Tuesday for its contribution in ensuring educational attainment for Hispanic youth in the community.

The American Dream Academy will be featured as part of the “Bright Spots in Hispanic Education,” a national online catalog of more than 230 programs that invest in key education priorities for Latinos. Jamie and Patricia Fabian and their 15-year-old daughter, Yenifer, attend the American Dream Academy at Trevor Browne High School in Phoenix on May 6. The free, 10-week, Latino parent-empowerment program teaches parents about the requirements for college. The Fabians were the 30,000th parents to complete the program. Photo by: Charlie Leight/ASU News Download Full Image

“ASU is honored to be named as a Bright Spot along with other national programs whose collaborative mission is to enable the Hispanic youth in our communities to succeed,” said Sylvia Symonds, ASU assistant vice president of Educational Outreach.

The American Dream Academy (ADA) is a parent-empowerment program created to help address the disproportionately low educational attainment of Hispanic students in Maricopa County. Through interactive, facilitated classes offered in a variety of languages, the ADA helps parents gain an understanding of how they can support their child academically and reach all the required steps to complete high school. Through this education, parent and child are prepared for the requirements needed to achieve a higher education.

“ADA is symbolic of the spirit that lives at Arizona State University, accessibility to higher education for all qualified students,” said Alex Perilla, director of American Dream Academy.

The White House Initiative on Educational Excellence for Hispanics was established in 1990 to address the educational disparities faced by the Hispanic community. Alejandra Ceja, executive director of the initiative, said the Bright Spots will be used to encourage collaboration between stakeholders focused on similar issues in sharing data-driven approaches, promising practices and peer advice.

“There has been notable progress in Hispanic educational achievement, and it is due to the efforts of these Bright Spots in Hispanic Education, programs and organizations working throughout the country to help Hispanic students reach their full potential,” Ceja said.

ASU has seen a 94 percent increase in Hispanic/Latino undergraduate enrollment since 2006. Through programs like the American Dream Academy, ASU ensures students are on a pathway to success, continuing to closely match Arizona’s socioeconomic diversity.

“ADA’s work brings to life ASU’s charter to be defined by whom we include and how they succeed,” Symonds said. “As part of Access ASU’s many programs and initiatives designed to grow the pipeline of K-12 students, ADA is contributing toward increasing the number of Arizona students prepared to enroll and succeed at ASU.”

Since its inception in 2006, the academy has graduated more than 30,000 parents and approximately 7,000 high school students and more than 80,000 children have benefited from their parents’ participation. In the past, research evaluations of the American Dream Academy curriculum show that parents who complete academy classes made impressive gains in their skills and knowledge about how to support their child’s education.

ADA was made possible by financial support from the Helios Foundation and SRP.

To learn more about the initiative and to view the Bright Spots in Hispanic Education national catalog, visit www.ed.gov/HispanicInitiative.

Editor's note: This story is part of a series of stories to mark Hispanic Heritage Month, which runs Sept. 15-Oct. 15.

Nobody in Craig Mahaffy’s family speaks any Spanish, so it might seem odd that he is enrolled in the Spanish heritage language program in Arizona State University’s School of International Letters and Cultures. Business major Craig Mahaffy makes fellow students Maria Alejandra Felix (left) and Maria Fernanda Felix laugh as he describes his use of music to build his Spanish skills during an ASU Spanish heritage language course on Aug. 27 on the Tempe campus. The courses are meant to help native speakers and others with a firm grasp on the language to polish their skills. Photo by: Deanna Dent/ASU News Download Full Image

The junior in business with a focus on global politics said he discovered the program — aimed more at native speakers or those who already have a firm grasp on the language — when he found general second-language Spanish classes weren’t challenging enough for him. He had picked up the language while dating a girl from Mexico whose mother spoke only Spanish.

“I would make us speak only in Spanish for like a month just so I could practice it,” said Mahaffy said of that relationship.

That’s one of the things Spanish heritage class instructor Roberto Ortiz Manzanilla loves about the program: He said the heritage classes are a great mix of people from different cultures, including Spanish-speaking countries and American Spanish speakers.

Secondary education junior Hayden Ballesteros is a native Spanish speaker, having come to the United States from Panama as a child, and was excited to find the heritage program at ASU:

“It made me feel a lot more comfortable because I definitely was not looking forward to sitting through a class of how to say ‘hola,’” Ballesteros said.

Sara Beaudrie, associate professor of Spanish linguistics and head of the Spanish heritage language program, said it’s the mission of the program to “promote Spanish language development and maintenance in the Southwestern United States.”

“Unfortunately a lot of [Spanish heritage program students] grow up ashamed of speaking Spanish and are forced to speak only in English. … A lot of them are already losing the language,” she said. “This program gives them the opportunity to regain those skills that they once had.”

Spanish Heritage Courses at Arizona State University from Arizona State University on Vimeo.

Manzanilla said the heritage program is different in many ways: Spanish-as-a-second-language classes usually consist of several short vocabulary-type activities, whereas the Spanish heritage classes focus on a few larger language concepts.

“Heritage learners’ needs are different from traditional second-language learners, who have not been in constant contact with Spanish while growing up,” Beaudrie said. “We offer these separate courses as a recognition of heritage learners’ unique abilities and needs within our classrooms, and as a way to expand our Spanish-speaking community at Arizona State University.”

That’s important to students like Ballesteros, for more than one reason: “This program allows us to build on the knowledge we already have,” while also acknowledging the importance of the Spanish language in today’s society.

“Spanish is one of the most spoken languages throughout the world. I can almost guarantee you that you will meet at least one person a month who only speaks Spanish, and it is an awesome feeling to be able to connect and communicate with that person on a different level,” said Ballesteros.

The School of International Letters and Cultures is a unit of the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences.

Three weeks ago Amanda Tachine received a phone call from a blocked number.

“At first I thought it might have been a telemarketing call and so I hesitated for a second,” Tachine said. “But something inside told me, ‘Mandy, you’ve got to pick up this phone. It could be important.’” Arizona State University postdoctoral scholar Amanda Tachine (pictured at the Center for Indian Education at the Tempe campus Sept. 8) is being recognized for her work with Native American students at a White House "Champions of Change" event this week in Washington, D.C. Photo by: Deanna Dent/ASU News Download Full Image

It most certainly was. The call was from the White House. They wanted Tachine and her family to come to Washington, D.C., and pick up a national award.

Tachine, a postdoctoral scholar at ASU’s Center for Indian Education, will be one of 11 young women honored Sept. 15 as “Champions of Change” by the White House in the Office of the First Lady. In addition to honoring the group for empowering their communities, the goal of the event is to inspire girls and young women to recognize their potential for leadership as educators, advocates, artists and entrepreneurs.

Among her other efforts with Native students, Tachine’s work on a two-tiered college-access mentoring program caught the eye of those organizing the Washington event.

The program will feature remarks by Valerie Jarrett, senior advisor to the president and chair of the White House Council on Women and Girls; Tina Tchen, chief of staff to the first lady and executive director for the White House Council on Women and Girls; and NASA astronaut Serena Aunon. On hand will also be Tachine’s husband, her two children, her mother and her aunt.

“Amanda is a gift, and her work as a Champion of Change is fitting,” said Bryan McKinley Jones Brayboy, President’s Professor, director of the Center of Indian Education and ASU’s special adviser to the president on American Indian Affairs.

“She is engaged in changing not only the ways that institutions engage first-year American Indian students but also the ways that we think about their challenges. Amanda is forcing us to engage these students as resources, trendsetters and those to whom we should listen to most closely.”

Listening to students is what Tachine’s academic career has been all about. With her dissertation, based on 10 interviews she conducted with Native American students, “Monsters and Weapons: Navajo Students’ Stories on Their Journeys Toward College,” Tachine is bringing the struggles of Native American students to light.

Before coming to ASU in August, Tachine was the former leader of Native SOAR (Student Outreach, Access and Resiliency) in Tucson. It was there where she fostered relationships between Native American graduate students and staff to encourage and represent Native American undergraduates, who in turn provide mentorship to high school students.

“A lot of blame is put on Native Americans that they’re not strong enough, savvy enough, economically smart enough to get the resources to go to college,” said Tachine, who is from Ganado, Arizona, considered the heart of the Navajo Nation.

“I’ve found that there are structural barriers for Native American students that don’t exist for others. We have a myriad of issues, which include poverty, homes without electricity or running water, crime, and social conditions like diabetes. There is a constant fear in the back of their heads. ‘How am I going to pay for college? How am I going to pay for tuition? How am I going to pay for gas for my car? How can I run off to college when my family at home needs me and my financial support?’”

As the child of a single-parent household, Tachine said she can identify with many of the Native American students she encounters. Her mother was a teacher and hinted of tough financial times. Her grandparents and aunt pitched in to help whenever they could, and they stressed that education was the only solution to a better life.

“My passion has always been to help my community and my people. That teacher has always been tucked away inside of me,” Tachine said. “The feeling grows stronger as I get older now that I have two kids, nieces and nephews. I’m constantly asking, ‘What can we do to help our little ones?’ I don’t want them to have the hurdles that I went through because I know they still exist.”

When Tachine returns from the East Coast, she hopes to continue advancing ideas and strategies for Native American student success.

Another Sun Devil being honored at the "Champions of Change" event: Diali Avila, who graduated from ASU with a bachelor's in nonprofit leadership and management from the College of Public Service and Community Solutions, currently works as an Affordable Care Act organizer at Planned Parenthood, helping families understand and get enrolled. Diali is also a DREAM Act advocate and a founding member of the Isac Amaya Foundation, an organization that focuses on raising awareness for higher education and raising money to award scholarships to low-income students and undocumented students.